Grain News

Purdue University: Rain Brings Relief to IN, But Drought Not Over

Date Posted: August 17, 2012

West Lafayette, IN—While a major weather pattern change that brought much-needed rain and cooler temperatures to the parched eastern Corn Belt is welcome relief, Purdue University climatologists warn against thinking the drought is almost over.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Drought Monitor (http://www.droughtmonitor.unl.edu) update on Thursday (Aug. 16) shows a shrinking area of exceptional drought - the worst drought rating available - that has gripped southwest and west-central Indiana.

The southern half of the state is still largely encompassed by extreme to exceptional drought, but the northern half of the state mostly ranges from the lesser categories of moderate to severe.

The hot dome of high pressure that had been parked over Indiana and the Midwest much of the summer has shifted to the southwestern states, taking the excessive heat west with it, said Ken Scheeringa, associate state climatologist for the Indiana State Climate Office at Purdue.

"This shift has allowed the jet stream, which was stuck far north of Indiana earlier this summer, to sink farther south, putting much of the state right into the storm track," Scheeringa said.

"This change has given us better opportunities for more frequent and heavier rainfall with greater area coverage."

A few weeks ago, climatologists were expecting more of the same - a warmer-than-normal August with little rain.

But recent shifts in the storm track driven by the jet stream and large-scale movement of the high-pressure system have changed that thinking.